Coach Dan’s Sunday Spotlight 12.27.2015

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. This week’s schedule is going to be similar to last week’s. We will have normal class times Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday we will only have the morning classes. There will be no noon or later classes on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day we will be doing our annual Snowy Murph WOD at 9 AM. You can come in anytime and between 9 and 10:30 to get started. You must start your WOD before 10:30 AM. Then Saturday will be regular 8 and 9 AM class times.

So… Why do we do Murph on New Year’s Day? First of all, what is Murph? Murph is a workout named after the fallen Hero Lt. Michael Patrick “Murph” Murphy. Murphy was a United States Navy SEAL officer who was awarded the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the War in Afghanistan. Many of you may know of Murph’s courageous sacrifice through the movie “Lone Survivor”. The workout we do in his name is a workout he used to do before he died. He called it Body Armor but it has been renamed to Murph after his death. Here is the WOD:

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

Now that we know who Murph was… Why do we do it on New Year’s Day? There are a couple of reasons. The first one is that I feel like every year we need a WOD that we can do that is challenging and sets the stage for our upcoming year. It challenges us and sets us up for the upcoming year.

Another reason is that Murph was my first WOD 5 years ago. I started CrossFit 5 years ago. I was deployed to Iraq and me and 4 of my buddies decided that we needed to switch things up in the gym. We needed something that was going to challenge us and that was going to push us. SSG Paul Diamond was the first to suggest CrossFit since he had done it before when he was home. We started it with Murph and I never looked back.

Over these past 5 years CrossFit has helped me in so many different ways. Physically for sure. Prior to CrossFit, I was suffering from an old soccer injury and couldn’t run more than a mile without excruciating pain from arthritis and inflammation in the lower back. Through CrossFit I built up my core and took all the extra pressure in my back away. It helped me fulfill my mission in Iraq and then continued to aid me in my recovery when I got home.

CrossFit has helped me mentally. There is something about CrossFit that helps you sweat out the stress. I can be having the worst day ever and when I get into The Point I am able to forget about what is going on outside of the gym and focus on myself for an hour.

CrossFit has opened new doors for me. By opening CrossFit The Point I have been blessed to have the ability and the people around me to bless the lives of others. The fundraisers and events that we have been a part of the past 4 years would not have been possible without the vehicle: CrossFit.

Finally, and most importantly, CrossFit has brought people into my life that I would never have known without it. First person I’d like to mention is my my wife! Emily came in for a 2 month Groupon and ended up with a little more than she expected. ;). I never knew there were so many good people in this world until all of you joined up at the box. I am amazed at how much good you all do, not only for each other but for all those you come in contact with. I really am terrible at expressing my thanks and I know I don’t show the appreciation you all deserve but I am so grateful for everything you all do for me and for those I care about. I wish I had the chance to sit down with each of you and tell you how much you influence me in my life.

We have another opportunity in the next couple of weeks to help out another group of people. As you all have noticed we are getting a huge pile of cold weather gear put together under the Christmas Tree in the front entrance area. You all have brought so many in that we are starting to run out of room! We are planning on taking these coats and cold weather gear up to downtown Salt Lake for the homeless there. We will release more details soon but if you have more please bring them in as soon as you can. I hope that all of you will be able to take these with us to those who need it.

With the New Year I hope you all are writing down your 2016 goals. We will be getting a new software soon that you will allow you to place those goals into and we can together work to accomplish those goals. I want you all to think about what you personally want to work on. I want you to write these down and when the new software is up and running I need for you all to enter those in so I can see them and be a part of your journey to accomplish them. I hope you all are as excited as I am for the upcoming year. Thank you again for being such a huge part in my journey.